Stephen Noakes, the chairman of the CML and director of mortgages at Lloyds Banking Group, has reflected on life in the mortgage industry in the immediate aftermath of the mortgage market review.

He said that on the whole, implementation of the new rules was ‘successful’, and despite the expected impact to service levels, lenders were able to prepare and thus minimised impact on the customer. The CML acknowledged recently that there has been a slowdown in activity levels, in part associated with new mortgage rules which have disrupted the norm, but it is unclear how lasting this will be and, as mentioned previously, it is clear that the market is still very much open for business.He said:
“We need to be mindful that a variety of things can impact the latest reported figures of activity, but there is no doubt, as mentioned previously, that applications have been impacted slightly, as a result of the industry going through this major transition.
“There has been a bigger impact on the remortgage and further advance markets, where direct channels have a greater share and where stresses on capacity can have a greater impact. However, critically, there is less impact on the house purchase market which is vital on many levels, not least to keep the wider economic recovery continuing across the country.
“There has been a bigger impact on the re mortgage and further advance markets. Will we see longer term impacts as the affordability changes bite harder on this segment, where debt consolidation is often a key customer driver?”

“The remaining question for the re mortgage market is whether or not short-term capacity is a key factor in the performance of this market, or whether we will see longer term impacts as the market-wide affordability changes bite harder on this segment, where debt consolidation is often a key customer driver.”
Noakes added that as the dust settles on MMR, there still remains some uncertainty about what lies ahead, particularly regarding the impact of the intervention in the housing market by the Bank of England’s financial policy committee as well a the European mortgage credit directive.Noakes concluded:
“These questions will keep the market on its toes, and also ensure it stays in the spotlight. So far in 2014, the market has adapted well to the changes it has needed to make. It is great to see the co-operation of those involved in the industry collectively to deliver the best result and keep the market open for business.”